CVS Hands Kids Breast Cancer Drugs Instead Of Fluoride Pills

For almost two months, some children in New Jersey were taking breast cancer drugs instead of fluoride pills for their teeth. CVS made a big whoopsie, as parents were picking up tamoxifen unbeknownst to them, and handing it out to their kids at home.

ABC News says the drug switcheroo went on for two months or longer before anyone figured it out.

CVS said in a statement: “The health and safety of our customers is our highest priority and we are deeply sorry for the mistake that occurred at our Chatham, NJ pharmacy. Beginning last week, we have contacted or have left messages for every family whose child was dispensed a 0.5 mg fluoride prescription from our Chatham location within the past 60 days.”

It’s unknown as to how the mix-up happened in the first place, and it seems only that one location had the wrong pills.

The known, serious side effects of tamoxifen are blood clots, strokes, uterine cancer, and cataracts (see Questions 5‚Äì8). Other side effects of tamoxifen are similar to the symptoms of menopause. The most common side effects are hot flashes and vaginal discharge. Some women experience irregular menstrual periods, headaches, fatigue, nausea and/or vomiting, vaginal dryness or itching, irritation of the skin around the vagina, and skin rash. As with menopause, not all women who take tamoxifen have these symptoms. Men who take tamoxifen may experience headaches, nausea and/or vomiting, skin rash, impotence, or a decrease in sexual interest.

They do it because the body’s endocrine system (males anyway) convert a portion of that testosterone to estrogen. That extra estrogen can cause some female-ish things to happen to your body, such as breast growth.

I worked at a CVS for 3 weeks as an intern. We did have an automated pill dispensing machine. The problem was that a human had to load the pills into the machine. If you loaded the wrong pills into the wrong container in the machine, it would dispense the wrong medication.

Human error can happen anywhere along the line. In fact, the machine made errors just as likely.

Every single prescription must be checked by a pharmacist. The pharmacist should pour out the pills and check each pill and compare it to the photo of the pill that is displayed on the computer screen. The computer will display a photo of the correct medication and the pharmacist should check to see if it matches. If someone did not do this, it is a serious violation of the most basic required safety check.

Something seriously wrong happened at this CVS store. Someone was not checking the prescriptions and this is a serious error. In fact, an error like this should never happen. It was absolute negligence. Pharmacists go to school for 4 years to prevent errors like this.

The automated pill machine is a possible cause of this error. If the machine was filled with the wrong pills, then it could have dispensed the wrong pills until someone refilled the machine.

What might have happened is that the fluoride pills had the same color and shape as the cancer pills. This would have to be a very rare chance as medications come in different shapes and colors with different numbers written on them.

Do I have to even ask if anyone checked the pill descriptions on the bottle and insert against the pills themselves? If not, I feel sorry for these people not one little bit. And I know people will flood in here saying “They are parents, they don’t have time to check if the pills are right. They are busy being parents and keeping their kids safe!” or “It’s not my responsibility to check my medication, even though I sign the pad that says I’ve asked any questions I may need, and am satisfied with the information I have received”.

No nurse does what you’re suggesting when dispensing meds at a hospital. Shifting blame to a parent if a child has a reaction (immediate or delayed) is hugely concerning. Most of us feel something when anyone gets hurt — even most evil individual and no matter how it happened. That’s being human and mature

I don’t believe that calling people out on bad behavior is jerkish. They’re always able to correct it if they are motivated enough, and often that motivation must come from the outside. I chose the word because his responses often reflect that point of view – excessively logical, uncompassionate, given to code- and category-switching. Even people with disabilities are obligated to behave civilly. This is a bit much for this forum, but I strongly disbelieve in the point of view that people should be given a pass for bad behavior, even if they carry a “diagnosis.”

You called him an “aspie”. So either he has asperger’s and you felt the right to share that with other posters. Or he doesn’t have it and you felt the right to use it as an insult. Either way, it’s a dick move.

Certainly not as jerkish as suggesting that children deserved to be dosed with endocrine antagonists. Countering a negative with a negative isn’t necessarily a negative. I was making an observation, not committing a HIPAA violation.

It took you longer to read this comment than it would to enter just a basic description of the pill into google to get what it is/could be. When a person/parent can’t take less time than it takes to watch a cat video on YouTube to ensure the safety of themselves/their children, it makes my blood boil. This wasn’t a manufacturer problem, such as too much/little active ingredient or mis-arranging the pills in a foil sheet. This was a person making a mistake. If we learned NOTHING from It’s A Wonderful Life and countless articles on Consumerist and also on your local news, it’s that a Pharmacist can mess up, and most of those cases could have been avoided had people simply checked the information they put in the same bag and on the same bottle the medication comes in.

Uh, your definition of toxic is pretty broad. Anything is toxic with enough of it. Tamoxifen, while not a good drug to be taking if not needed, is not nearly as bad as if the kid was being given many, many other drugs (opiates, blood thinners, etc.). Also it could have easily been a pharmacy technician not a “fucking pharmacist” that filled the prescription, they are very different positions.

Finally, there are fail safes as SteveDave mentioned on the consumer end. Yes, the company failed, no one is debating that, but the consumer has a responsibility to verify their medication. It is bizarre that a parent would not read even the basic description of the medicaiton which is printed right on the bottle.

Pharmasists are one of the most highly trained professions, and often spot errors commited by doctors. For this reason I can see many people automatically trusting their pharmacy. I’m not able to open the link, so I don’t know if it was a consumer who read the insert and spoke to the pharmacists, or if it was the pharmacy that discovered it, or if it was a doctor who discovered it when parents took the children to the doctor due to behavior/illness.

Whatever the case, I hope two things happen. First, the government do a proper investigation and the medical boards do a review of licences. Second, everyone learns to check those inserts before they take or give medication to anyone.

But they won’t learn. That’s why I included those arguments in my comment. We see it time and time again, especially on this very site, where people don’t do the due diligence to read a bloody insert on the package, or in the case of some pharmacies, on the PILL BOTTLE ITSELF. It’s really not that hard, honestly. I check every script I receive. I open the bag at the counter, look at the pills inside, and check the insert. If it’s a script I have been taking for awhile, I know what they imprints/shapes/color will be. If it’s a new one, I check the insert against the pills, ask any questions to the pharmacist, then when I get home, I open up the googles and just enter in what I see, and I will usually get my 2nd confirmation, like this: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=round+pill+952+5

When are people going to stop blaming other people for their own incompetence? Yes the pharmacist, or the pharm tech screwed up. HOWEVER it is up to the end user to compare the pill to the pamphlet, or last months pills. If they look different, check, ask questions. Quit blaming others for your blatant disregard that someone else could make a mistake.

“We Have”, have you? And you are correct, the children received the wrong medication through no fault of their own. It was their parent’s and the pharmacies fault. But if the parents had shown a little care, and taken a minute or two, their poor child(ren) and 60 others would not have suffered one bit.

That’s what makes you a troll. Knowing the victims of this included children, you said you don’t feel sorry for them.

The only thing we’re not sure of, is if what makes you a troll is that you’re so cold that you think that about children and in fact have no sympathy –or you’re just saying it because such a depraved statement will upset people and that’s what you truly enjoy.

He’s not one of the more reasonable posters here. There is never an issue where he will take the side of the consumer and to add insult to injury, there’s practically no issue where he won’t insult the consumer.

Saying he doesn’t feel a bit sorry for parents or kids who got the wrong medicine just proves that he’s cold and cruel.

See, why is he a troll? Because instead of just saying, “hey, make sure, make sure you check the description on the bottle that goes with the pills –if you can read it to make sure it matches up”.

But instead he mocks people and makes fun of them and coldly says he doesn’t care that kids got cancer medicine. That’s trolling and he’s done it for AGES here.

I’m not sure how long you’ve been coming here CreekDog but in the years I’ve been here I have to agree with everything you posted about stevedave.

Unfortunately, other than you blowing off some steam, and rightly so I might add, nothing you, or I, or anyone else says will change his holier-than-thou attitude. It seems stevedave believes himself to be someone special.

Most of the time I read the posts here and never say anything to him. This time though what he said made me want to puke. I 100% agree with you. If you notice he hasn’t yet tried to say he didn’t mean it like it sounded. He has said that once or twice in the past. However, for the most part he seems to have an attitude that says he really he doesn’t believe he can say or do anything that is wrong. In other words I believe he is a megalomaniac.

SteveDave or what ever the hell you want to call yourself…You not feeling sorry for the children shows that you are a heartless S0B. I know that I’ll be ripped here because you have some people fooled into believing you are somebody special. You may think you’re special on the internet, but in real life you are a PO$

Normally not one to jump on the lawsuit train – but seriously, SUE. Especially considering the potential side effects, some of these families may need the money to cover medical bills. Hopefully not, but it’s a possibility.

Let this be *another* lesson to anybody picking up a prescription from the Pharmacy: ALWAYS read the leaflet of information the Pharmacy gives you on the medication. It usually describes the physical pill (so you can make sure it looks like what it is supposed to be) and it tells you what the medicine is usually used for (so you can be sure the Pharmacist read the prescription correctly.

In this case, it appears that somehow Tamoxifen ended up in a bottle meant for fluoride tablets. I hope that the pharmacist and all dispensing techs are fired for this, as checking to make sure that the pill being dispensed is the one that is prescribed is one of the most basic jobs pharmacists and pharmacy techs are supposed to perform; not just count whatever spills out of the bottle and slap a label on it.

I wish my pharmacy gave me time to check the meds. They always give me a folded stapled bag, and the bum’s rush after I hand over my $$. They don’t do patient education at all. I’d have to check after I leave the pharmacy.

Also, I believe if I were to check the pills at the pharmacy and inquire “Is this the right pill?” the answer I’d be given is “Yes,” no matter what. Pharmacists and other medical professionals have an extra special arrogance quotient, hate being questioned and never apologize when they do make mistakes.

I hate to say you are wrong, but you probably are. I was once given a different generic Adderall than I normally take at Target. I recognized the pills as the one, but the insert and bottle IDed the other generic I normally get. The Pharmacist was sitting down eating lunch on her break when I came to pick up my prescription, but as soon as I asked the tech, the Pharmacist came out and checked the bottle, the pills, and re-printed me out a new label and insert for the right ones. It’s apathy like yours which cause problems and let them go forward.

No I’m not wrong. In my case, when I was given a wrong dosage of the correct drug, first I was told I was wrong. I persisted and said that the tablet was marked with a dosage different than what I was prescribed. The pharmacist ignored me. I yelled over the counter that I would file a formal complaint with the pharmacy board if I did not get the situation rectified immediately. I was still ignored. I called the pharmacy’s 800 CS number and explained my problem. They also tried to tell me I was in the wrong. Finally a tech looked at my pills and agreed they were the wrong dose. It was at this point that the pharmacist openly admitted she substituted the pills because they were out of the dosage I was prescribed. She didn’t care that the pills I received were only half the dosage and she didn’t even suggest I take 2 of the lower dosage pills instead of the single higher dosage one because she was deliberately trying to fake me out. I filed a formal complaint and I attended the pharmacist’s disciplinary hearing where she received a letter of reprimand for deliberately lying to me.

In my 2nd story, the doctor wrote the wrong date on the script – a date in the future. The pharmacy filled the script, but canceled out the refills – they never told me about the problem. When I went to refill, I was told I had none. I had to force the pharmacy to pull the paper script and verify the info with the physician’s office, who after umpteen phone calls, admitted the doc wrote the wrong date on the script. Nobody apologized for this morass and they acted as if I were some sort of troublemaker for even bringing it up. It could have been avoided had the pharmacy called me when they first noticed the date discrepancy.

Finally, I inspect medical facilities for work. Errors are routinely ignored, denied, glossed over, and lengthy excuses made, if they don’t try to just kick me out of the premises. Rarely do I hear “oopsie!” let alone, “I’m sorry; I made a mistake.” They just don’t apologize for mistakes – there’s a very god-like attitude among these people; they’re untouchable. You have to go after their licenses or pocketbooks to get them to apologize.

People, through social exposure, know that this is the way things are, and they behave accordingly. They don’t question medical decision making because they know if they do, they will be shut down or told they aren’t intelligent enough to understand such things. Challenging errors is socially unpleasant and time-consuming. Patients also rightfully feel that they pay a significant sum for medical services and that they should be provided without error.

Finally, I inspect medical facilities for work. Errors are routinely ignored, denied, glossed over, and lengthy excuses made, if they don’t try to just kick me out of the premises. Rarely do I hear “oopsie!” let alone, “I’m sorry; I made a mistake.”

Um, I’m calling shenanigans. What healthcare quality organization do facilities “try to just kick [people] out of the premises”? Certainly not JCAHO, or any state authority, so what exactly do you do? What job would be focusing on individual mistakes to which someone can say “oopsie”? ANY healthcare quality organization I know does not confront individuals about individual mistakes, barring a state health official investigating a specific incident, but again you can’t kick the state authority out?

You didn’t answer the question, so I assume you are in fact lying. As a registered nurse, and someone currently getting a doctorate in nursing, I know enough about what you claim to know you are out and out lying.

Did you seriously file a complaint with a board of pharmacy because a pharmacist changed the dose of your pill but also changed the directions so you were still getting the same dose because they were out of your standard dosage form? I smell bullshit. The pharmacist telling you that nothing was wrong is still technically correct. Nothing is wrong. You were getting the same dose you were before, just in a different want. No board of pharmacy would discipline a pharmacist for that. We do this all the time.

I still smell bullshit. A pharmacist would substitute the pills at a lower dosage but then change the directions to show that you should take double the amount. Did you even read the directions on your bottle before making accusations? As I said, this happens quite a lot. I can’t see a pharmacist filling a script incorrectly on purpose like this. It is much easier to just say that they don’t have the current drug in stock. A pharmacist wouldn’t risk their 100k+ a year job to fill a script incorrectly on purpose like how you described.

As far as your inspections of medical facilities, I doubt that people would try to kick you out unless you were an auditor for an insurance company, in which case, I would want you to get the fuck out too. If you would work for an insurance company then you don’t know shit except for your contractual obligations with the medical facility. If you work for a state or federal agency, no one can just kick you out. I smell more bullshit here too.

Wow, like I said, your posts are proof positive that medical professionals are mean, arrogant and rude to others, and refuse to acknowledge others’ experiences and point of view. That’s why malpractice suits are so popular. People feel the need for justice not only for being malpracticed upon, but because the providers and the system refuse to take responsibility and often try to make fools of those who are victimized. Regarding my work, the state fines providers who refuse us entry, and do so regularly for that reason. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

One of the things I learned from my mother was to check each perscription against the description of the medication. My mother had a Phisician’s Desk Reference guide and always checked each perscription given to anyone in the family. I remember her calling the doctor at times, or the pharmacy. I just thought she didn’t trust her doctor. I didnt’ find out until after her death that one of my older brothers was given the wrong medication as an infant when he was in the hospital, and almost died.

I’ve never gotten a perscription from CVS. I have my insurance with Kaiser and they have in house pharmacies. They alway have a info sheet with the description of the medication and exactly what it’s meant to treat, side effects, etc. I thought that was a requirement, but I don’t know.

It is. But most people just gobble down a pill, and don’t care, unless something bad happens, then they all of a sudden care about their health. If this was a case where the pills themselves were mis-imprinted or there was a manufacturer defect, I would be concerned. But this was a case where one person screwed up, and 60 other people didn’t care enough to check what they were giving their own children, for Gadget’s sake. If you don’t care about yourself, fine. But at least look into what you are giving your children.

I’d say somebody who has already gone to the trouble of navigating our painful slow, rules-laden and expensive medical system, and taken their order to a pharmacy and picked it up, has already shown that they care about their health.

A pharmacist who makes 6 figures a year and who has umpteen years of education should be held responsible for people getting the right meds. I know in reality the pharmacist is likely overworked and doesn’t have the time to check and re-check, but it should be happening, and I don’t feel the onus is on the recipients of these pills.

Every prescription is NOT filled by a pharmacist. They are more often filled by Pharmacy technicians: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos325.htm#nature . Pharmacists mostly deal with the out of the ordinary substances and act as resource to patients, not simply counting pills. You want a pharmacist to fill every prescription? Then be prepared to pay immensely for that luxury.

“But, but, but, I’d gladly pay extra to safeguard against the small likelihood of an error so that I blindly take pills because reading the insert is too hard”, Great, go ahead and find a private pharmacist (they exist). However don’t knock a system that is able to provide at least a small break in prices for millions of people.

Here in NC, every single prescription passes by the pharmacist. The tech pulls the bottle off the shelf and counts the pills, but the pharmacist is obligated to inspect every prescription before it goes out the door.

And if something goes wrong, it’s the pharmacist that is legally liable, not the tech. It doesn’t matter if the tech swapped baby aspirin for horse-pill-sized cyanide; the pharmacist is the one that goes down in flames.

CVS was formerly Sav-on where we lived. We refused to use them for prescriptions after two incidents involving my wife. Once they gave her someone else’s prescription. On the other occasion the tablets contained twice the prescribed dose of medication.

When I spoke to the pharmacist I was told that the particular location was a training pharmacy.

I can’t find a article explaining this further but in the least the proper public protocol should have been:

1) Close and secure the pharmacy immediately — this may not be an error it could be a crime

2) Obtain accurate listing of all families that ordered fluoride and send police/fire personnel to homes to inform parents. Or some other verifiable way to ensure everyone was properly informed by an independent public safety source

Allowing CVS to leave phone messages and write press releases saying that shit happens when humans are involved isn’t cutting it. A drug strong enough to be used to fight cancer given to kids. An estrogen suppressant? And CVS says shit happens?

Sorry, pharmacies don’t close due to a drug error. Once it has been spotted, we try to fix the error and what caused it asap, which can include quarantine of certain drugs, but never closing the pharmacy. Only time a pharmacy is generally closed during business hours, is if the company can’t find a pharmacist, or the pharmacy was just robbed.

City water usually is, but in some cases, there may be a lot of well water users, who wouldn’t get fluoridated water. Also, even with city water, some kids may need more than others. The pills in question are .5mg chewables, which is really a small amount and concentrated in the mouth.

They have to. Otherwise how is the NWO going to make sure that us Americans are weak and dumb so when they round us up into the FEMA death camps, we will submit? If they don’t do it in pill form, they will have to change the formulation in the chemtrails, which is tricky, because you need a precise mixture regionally. That’s where the Nazi’s messed up. They used the same formulation across Europe. That’s why the NWO sabotaged them, so they would lose the war.

That is exactly what I thought! We spend a lot of time and $ filtering OUT adulterants such as fluoride from our water. Why would you even need fluoride pills for children. In other countries fluoride is used to treat thyroid issues.

I will never use CVS again. I had a prescription for a 30-day supply of an ointment, which would be two jars of it. I went to pick it up, and the pharmacist said my insurance only approved one jar. I called my insurance and was told that was not the case – they’d approve as many as prescribed. Essentially, the pharmacist lied to me. I called the district manager, asking him whether it is CVS’ policy to lie to customers. Of course, he apologized profusely. Still, they will never get my business again.

So if it’s a choice between CVS lying to you, whom has no reason to deny you medication, as they will get paid for it by your insurance, or your insurance, you will believe CVS is lying, because your insurance would never lie to you in their attempt to save money.

You also won’t consider perhaps it was a misunderstanding between whomever the pharmacist spoke to at the insurance agency, and was an “honest” mistake?

I don’t think the pharmacist lied to you. We bill to the insurance company electronically. They tell us on the spot how much of a drug they will cover per 30 days usually. They might cover 2 jars worth of drug for 30 days worth, but only if your M.D. does a prior authorization most likely. Did your insurance company tell you that? I doubt it. Insurance companies will state they will cover anything as long as the M.D. does a Prior Auth just so they client doesn’t blame the insurance company. They might not have covered 2 jars without an override by the pharmacist, which the pharmacist may not have been able to do because of possible chargebacks to the pharmacy. This happens a lot with MEDCO as a pharmacy benefits manager. But if you call your insurance company, they will tell you that yes they do cover it, but they won’t tell you that the pharmacist must put in an override which he can’t do due to egregious charge back policies by the insurance company.

I read yesterday that the error had been pinned down to an outside vendor sending a mislabedd bottle but I could be reading that as “suspected” and not confirmed. What’s even scarier is the fact the pills looked similar enough that the pharmacist confirmed it. Eeek!

Not necessarily. My town does not add fluoride to its drinking water. I do, however, use fluoridated toothpaste for my son (since he’s 5 and not going to swallow it) and give my daughter (who is 9 months old) liquid fluoride drops.

I wouldn’t even have such an issue with fluoride if they would just take it out of the water. Think about how much many we are wasting needlessly putting this toxin in our water and fluoridating everything. It is ridiculously ineffective when we swallow it and has been proven to cause more harm than good. Remember that fluoride spill that ate through the concrete? That was what they were putting in the water.

I understand some people think it is a good thing, and that is fine. Use fluoridated toothpaste and i’ll have no qualms with you selling it. But this notion that it is somehow helpful to put something labeled as a poison in our water supply is so absurd. It is a classic case of people thinking they are doing something for the ‘greater good’ when they are actually just being misled.
Even the friends I have who do think fluoride is helpful still understand how utterly stupid it is to be adding it to our water supply. I’m glad your kids have a parent who is at least informed on the issues effecting their health and doesn’t just blindly follow what society says is good for their own child.

At least they got something.We’ve either gotten no call back despite telling them “call me if there is a problem filing this prescription” and then showing up and having it not be ready because there was a problem but they never bothered to call. Or being told while dropping off the prescription “I ain’t gonna fill this because I would have to process it manually and it would take too long”

It’s a pretty embarrassing mistake. This isn’t good, but it could have been a lot worse. There are medications out there that can kill people on the first dose. I’m not sure how they mixed up fluoride with tamoxifen. Usually in a pharmacy the meds are listed alphabetically. F and T are a long way away. My guess is that a technician didn’t scan the drug and just overrided the NDC check by typing in the correct NDC without checking the bottle. It is also possible that there were multiple bottles on the counter where the techs were. counting and they grabbed the wrong one and the pharmacist didn’t check the bottle to the image of the pills, probably because they were really really busy.

We all make mistakes. I made a mistake last week with a child’s antibiotic. The dose said 0.8 ml and it was typed in as 9.8 ml because they 9 is right next to the 0 on the keyboard. Pretty big dose increase isn’t it? Mistakes happen all the time. Fortunately, the parents caught the mistake and we fixed it. No harm done thankfully.

The only reason you are hearing of this one is that it was a “cancer” drug which really isn’t even used in cancer that much anymore but more for breast cancer prevention. The other reason is that the family of the child probably wanted to make it public. Mistakes happen every day at EVERY PHARMACY.

SteveDave or what ever the hell you want to call yourself…You not feeling sorry for the children shows that you are a heartless S0B. I know that I’ll be ripped here because you have some people fooled into believing you are somebody special. You may think you’re special on the internet, but in real life you are a PO$

I hate CVS with the fire of a 1000 white hot suns. They’re flat out incompetent. I have to use them (or rather Caremark Services) for scripts. Had a one time only, so went to CVS because I was sick and needed some meds. Doctor’s office called in before I left there, took me an hour to get to the store by my house. Claimed to have not gotten the call. Called my doctor, asked them to call in again. Left, came back 30 minutes later. Still no scripts. Called the doctor for the third time. I’m standing there, in front of them, hacking up a lung. Please, give me my meds. Turns out they had them all along.

I had to apologize to the staff at my doctor’s office for making them call CVS 3 separate times.

CVS gave me a prescription for ambien with the bottle that said “take one in the morning upon awakening.” I was smart enough to know it was wrong, but I wish I had saved the bottle because that same pharmacy later refused to fill another prescription because I was out of state even though I was seen by an instate doctor and had filled that prescription before. They don’t deserve my service, period. They are rude and obviously, no one is paying attention to what they are doing there!